A MALAYSIAN street food kitchen will take up the first pop-up residency in the city’s newly-renovated food hall.

Shelter Hall on Brighton seafront has welcomed Santan Boi to its New Venture Kitchen.

The food business was born out of founder Tom Mullany’s experience of living in Malaysia, where he fell in love with the cuisine.

Tom eventually quit his job in digital advertising to focus on researching recipes and cooking techniques, and decided to move back to the UK to launch a street food business, but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic last year.

The Argus: Chef Tom MullanyChef Tom Mullany

He competed against two other Sussex chefs in a cook-off as part of a competitive selection process to win the four-month residency at Shelter Hall’s New Venture Kitchen.

The business will be the seventh kitchen partner and joins Sussex favourites Lost Boys Chicken, CrabShack, Sugardough, VIP Pizza, Hanoi Kitchen and Ox Block by Masterchef winner Kenny Tutt at the food hall.

Tom said: “I just can’t wait to start.

“Santan Boi is all about shouting about the Malaysian cuisine and culture that I love.

“The last year has been tough, however this partnership with Shelter Hall is such an exciting opportunity to grow and to have a platform to shout even more.”

The menu at Santan Boi will showcase classic Malaysian dishes in an attempt to recreate Tom’s culinary experiences in the country as honestly as possible.

Each plate will be packed full of aromatic flavours such as lemongrass and galangal, traditional belacan shrimp-paste, plenty of spice, and lots of coconut milk... “santan” in Malay.

The Argus:

Dishes include Nasi Lemak for £7 – a coconut and pandan rice dish with egg, cucumber, peanuts, fried anchovies and spicy sambal, Ayam Goreng Berempah for £9.50 – spicy chicken fried in lemongrass, ginger, galangal and spices, and Daging Masak Hitam for £11, which is beef cooked in aromatic spice paste and kicap manis sweet soy sauce.

Sessions Market, which operates Shelter Hall, said the aim of the New Venture Kitchen is to provide chefs with an opportunity to introduce their food businesses to customers, as a platform to “nurture exciting new talent in the food industry and help them to grow”.

It will give each food business a four-month residency in a professional kitchen, access to Shelter Hall’s customer base and operational support to grow rapidly.

Successful food businesses will then be taken on with the goal of a joint venture delivery and rolled out through Sessions’ Accelerator scheme at the end of the four months.

The company said it is always looking for new food businesses to take up the New Venture Kitchen residency and existing brands to partner in their Accelerator scheme.

Any budding chefs can get in touch on partners@sessionsmarket.co.uk.